Page 53 of Captured Pawn
“Don’t you dare try to spin this as you doing me a favor. You used me. To get into the vault… to get your revenge on the Bishops… You did the exact opposite of what Matty asked you to do by putting me in danger. You turned me into a felon!”
Her tears were flowing harder, breaking my heart along with her own until she added, “And what’s worse, you seduced me into your bed so you could use me and then throw me away. Matty might as well have asked the Bishops to look after me after his death. They couldn’t have hurt me any worse than you have!”
Her words were like a knife, doing more damage than Angela’s bullet.
“Sophie!” I called out to her retreating back as she rushed from my bedroom. When she flung the door open, she pushed the security guard on duty out of the way.
“Go after her!” I yelled at Nathan, knowing there was no way I could catch her in my current state.
But the bastard didn’t move.
“You need to let her go,” he answered. “I know it’s hard, but maybe her finding out like this was for the best. Her anger will help her want to put all of this behind her and start over.”
That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.
CHAPTER21
Sophie
Three weeks later
The vibration of an incoming text coincided with me pulling the roll of packing tape across the last box of inventory being returned to the manufacturer. I used my arm to swipe away the bead of sweat on my forehead. I’d been working like a slave all week to sell, donate, or return everything I’d spent years building.
It was both heartbreaking and exhilarating in equal measure.
Taking my phone out of my back pocket, I confirmed the text was from my real estate agent. I’d been waiting for her message.
Parking car. Be at door in one minute.
Under normal circumstances, I was certain she didn’t alert her clients to when she was about to arrive, but then again, she probably didn’t need to walk through a gauntlet of armed guards when she visited most of her other clients either.
I walked to the front door, waiting to let her in. As expected, two of the Knight family armed security guards were sitting on the newly installed bench outside of my business. Anyone who paid any attention to them at all would notice that they literally read the same newspaper all day long without so much as flipping the pages.
Great cover, guys.
And they were the only two I could see. I often caught glimpses of others, hiding in the shadows.
Still, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that having them trailing me everywhere I went was a comfort—at least after I’d laid down the ground rules that they were to keep a discreet distance. And while yes, they made me feel safer, they also helped me maintain the thinnest of connections to Nick. As lame as that connection was, I knew once I left Rhode Island, even that thread would be snipped, and I’d truly be on my own.
“Hi, Marianne,” I said, welcoming the real estate agent.
“I hope you have a pen handy. I need your signature on a bunch of papers,” she said.
“Let’s go back to my office. I’m leaving the office furniture behind so we can at least grab a seat as we go through everything.”
Luckily, I had no customers, so I locked the door since I’d be in the back.
It was bittersweet to think about how I’d worked my ass off for years, building and accumulating the things I thought were important, but it only took about fifteen minutes for me to complete the paperwork that would get rid of it all:
The security business along with the entire office complex my father had left us.
The townhouse I’d convinced Matty we should buy so we could build up equity.
The classic 1987 Dodge Charger that had been my father’s pride and joy.
I was selling it all, just like Nick had warned me to.
The biggest irony of all was I didn’t even need the revenue from the sales thanks to the million-dollar life insurance policy payout that had arrived by certified mail last week. While the financial security was life changing, I knew in my heart that my brother—who hadn’t been responsible enough to take out the garbage—would never have purchased life insurance.
